Wolves and Men

“Well? What did you learn?” Derceto snapped at the five of them. Her reddish brown fur was bristling along her shoulders and ears. The Elder was never what he would call happy, but she was definitely annoyed at something.

The nine of them were standing inside the Tower’s uppermost room. The young pack, the Elder and her three grey Shape shifter body guards were standing in the same room that William had emerged from his trials in.

The four, obsidian, high backed chairs were as immovable as ever spaced in between by the two pedestals that Alexiares and Derceto had sat upon in wolf form.

“We learned that this construction site was either simply a trap to lure werewolves there, or the vampires are building something there which might be some kind of training site. Either way, there were five of them waiting for us. They were well prepared and ready,” Charles said calmly, not giving in to the hard stares that the Elder was trying to stab him with.

“A trap? Judge Cortez gave us reliable information that this site had been using up more and more resources and money and when you five get back all you can say is, ‘it was a trap’?” She snorted loudly turning her head to the side toward one of her grey werewolf body guards. “Perhaps these five do need a sixth member after all.” She mused to her followers. This elicited a laugh from one of them.

“Yeah? Keep laughing, jackhole! You sound like a hyena!” Nicolas spat out taking a step towards the offending grey.

William shifted and stepped in between the two as they rapidly closed on each other. William held the grey with a forearm and elbow and held Nicolas off with an outstretched claw. The grey snarled at him past the enforcer and Nicolas smiled back and winked.

“Enough!” Derceto stated.

The grey backed down and William shifted back to human form.

“Do you really expect me to believe what you are telling me?” Derceto asked. “I have been part of this city for over sixty years. I have seen many friends and sometimes whole packs die, either from incompetence, or overconfidence. And in all that time I have never heard a Shape shifter, either human or wolf borne claim what you five are telling me.”

It was Katherine who spoke. “We need to consider that these vampires have either rediscovered something or are using techniques than we have never seen before.” Her quiet voice bore a hard line of confidence and knowledge that stilled all opposition. Even Derceto took a moment to respond.

“What are you trying to say, girl?” the Elder questioned.

Katherine looked the Elder in the eye and held the Shape shifter’s gaze. “There have been thousands of years of our history that has been recorded. The one event that has remained bare of any real details is the destruction of the City under the Clouds.”

Derceto snorted. “A testament to our arrogance. The thought that we could live among humans as we are. It was a fool’s gambit to assume that humans would give anything back to our kind, even after our ancestors and others had shown the humans how to behave. We were better left staying in the shadows and illustrating by example how to live and survive instead of opening our arms and welcoming our destruction by those same ungrateful, uncaring hypocrites that mankind has proven itself to be throughout history.”

Katherine was unimpressed, “That is the conventional wisdom on the topic. But in my research and my quest to find out why it happened I came across some very interesting personal journal entries and transcribed cave paintings that tell a very different story.”

Derceto looked at her out of the corner of one eye. “What could you have possibly rediscovered that our scholars have studied for years?”

“The lack of hard facts lets our scholars be held by the long-standing belief you just retold to us. It keeps us happy under the guise of safety. But the cave paintings found in Northern Spain show a group of people with bows being led by wolves.”

“Those painting are of a hunt. It shows the last of the wolf packs being chased from Spain!” One of the greys cried out.

“In most cases I would agree with you,” Katherine replied calmly. “And if it wasn’t for some of those journal entries I have read I wouldn’t have any reason to doubt it. But there is another part to the painting. You never see the people actually fire their bows; they are all slack without arrows notched. And just to the right of that, in front of the wolf line there is a village depicted.”

“So what? Humans have always hunted our kind under the auspice of protecting their homes and families,” The same grey snorted.

“The village is depicted underneath a cloud laden sky.” Katherine stated.

“The City under the Clouds,” Charles breathed.

“I believe it is,” Katherine said. “I also believe that those wolves are actually leading the people in the picture and because their bows are not drawn, I have come to realize that they entered the city without challenge.”

“The City under the Clouds was the biggest city in the world at one time. There, people and wolves and Shape shifters lived in relative peace and harmony. Wolves ran the streets playing while merchants sold their wares to people and Shape shifters alike. In the journal of a woman named Malkia, I found some very wrong translations and I retranslated them using some updated texts. She says that ‘the place beneath the Clouds was opened to all and all entered. The goodwill of the animals and humans was subverted by the demon walkers and the once great city fell in a day. The evil was led by the four-legged predators. Those that could be reborn and the evil was carried by them’.” The group looked at her quietly and even the Elder was silenced.

“The wolves led the vampires on the assault on the City under the Clouds?” Aceso asked.

“According to Malkia they did,” Katherine replied.

“And what proof do you have, girl. The ramblings of some human who probably wasn’t even there, and a cave painting? That is hardly proof of anything.” Derceto said calmly.

“Except what just happened to us a few hours ago,” Nicolas intoned offhandedly.

Derceto looked at the five of them and then glanced at her three greys. She looked to the ceiling of the room. The room was silent for long moments as the group waited for the Elder to speak. She nodded to herself.

The Elder turned and made a sign to her greys. The three growled loudly in protest. The Elder turned her head, made the signal again and growled harshly from the back of her throat. The three greys bowed to her and stepped backwards slowly in respect. Then they quietly left the Tower without so much as looking back or an irritable tail swish.